• I suppose it wasn’t really all her fault that things went array, but when Victoria happened to wander onto the Ninjas’ territory and take the Diamond Nun Chucks, really there was no one else to blame.
    “You took the Diamond Nun Chucks!” Justin, the leader of the Ninjas exclaimed, “Those were one of our most prized possessions, the father of all nun chucks, and you stole them!”
    Now Justin wasn’t shouting this at Victoria. He was shouting at the leader of the Pirate’s clan, Nick. Now Nick was a funny guy, just out there to have a good time. He pillaged, he stole, and he accumulated treasures and kept them in his most sacred possession, his treasure chest. When he awoke that morning, it was gone. All of his booty and gold was gone, and now Justin was accusing him of stealing. Really, it was Justin who was the thief and was trying to cover it up by blaming him. Though this was enraging, Nick kept his cool.
    “Really, Justin?” Nick asked sarcastically, “I think it is you who is the thief! For when I awoke this morning, my treasure had vanished! It was there last evening, I count it every night before bed, you are the thief, my dimwitted Goth.”
    Justin looked as if he were going to explode. He opened his mouth to speak, but just then, Maryum spoke up from behind him, not visible before because of the black outfit she was wearing.
    “So you’ve got something stolen, and we’ve got something stolen, clearly we are looking for the same person. Let’s not fight, let’s search together.”
    “I agree, fighting each other is stupid.” Amanda said from behind Nick.
    “Yeah, don’t act like babies.” Nicole agreed peeking over Justin’s shoulder.
    “We must fight, because they have taken the Diamond Nun Chucks! The hardest nun chucks in the world! They are sacred, don’t you even care? We shall fight after teatime tomorrow!” Justin raged, and the rest of the ninjas started to nod their heads in agreement. He turned and stalked away with the ninjas following.
    “Look forward to seeing you soon, Honey.” Nick teased and returned to the rest of the pirates waiting on the ship. “Okay, we’re going to need weapons and lots of them.”
    “I still think this is stupid.” Amanda mumbled.
    “It’s not stupid! He stole all our booty! Justin is going down!” Mattie yelled from across the deck. Mattie’s and Justin’s families were rivals even before the Pirates versus Ninjas war broke out in the 1800s. Even now, when the pirates and ninjas were trying to coexist, they still fought constantly. The mere saying of Justin’s name set her off. This stealing of their treasure proved her right all along and he wouldn’t get away with it.
    Nick ignored the two and continued on, “We may need Brittany to call up the Kraken, so we need this battle to be near the water. That should be easy, because we’re on a ship.”
    Just then Brittany looked up from the ship rat she was training, “Hey, where’s Haley?”
    As if on cue, Haley came sliding down the mast. “Wahoo! That was fun! You got to try it!”
    “We are in the middle of planning a war here.” Mattie said, even though hours before she had joined Haley in jumping off the side of the ship into the water below. This wasn’t playtime anymore, this was payback.
    “We’ll do it later!” Nick said, still planning out what they would need for the battle, “Amanda, write that down on my Bucket List.”
    “I’m not your secretary!” Amanda said, walking away.
    “Why’s everyone so angry?” Haley asked.
    “The ninjas stole our treasure chest and gold, then they tried to blame us for taking their diamond nun chucks or something.” Brittany said, accidentally letting the rat get away. “Rats!”
    “I wish I had nun chucks.” Haley said sadly. “Although, swords are cooler.” She whipped out her sword and stabbed at the air. “I can’t wait to get those ninjas!”
    “Hey! Put that down, you’re going to kill someone!” Mattie chastised and then she returned to helping Nick.
    Meanwhile, back at the Ninjas hideout, which was really just an unused wing in the sewer, Justin and the other ninjas were not as organized in mapping out they’re attack. Maryum was sitting next to Hannah trying to come up with an explanation to how both the pirates and the ninjas were missing their most prized possessions, but she wasn’t having any luck. Hannah was reading a book about the proper way to clean a samurai sword without chopping off your hand. Justin was muttering to himself in a corner about what he was going to do about Nick, while Christy was training on straw dummies for the big fight. While all this was happening, Nicole slipped away.
    Amanda was sitting in an alley outside of McDonalds when she felt a tap on her shoulder.
    “I didn’t think you were coming.” She said, turning around.
    “I said I was coming didn’t I?” Nicole replied. Even though she could see the cigarette butts and grime on the ground, she sat down next to Amanda.
    “I’m not fighting tomorrow, and you shouldn’t either.” Amanda said.
    “I don’t want to, but it should be interesting to see Brittany call up a Kraken. Maybe she’ll put a saddle on it and ride it.” Nicole said grinning.
    “As amazing as that would be, I’m leaving. I heard of a place east of here where there are no pirates or ninjas, just people. I think it’s called New…New…York? I don’t know, it was “new” something. I wonder what happened to the old one. I heard that it’s a simply magical place.” Amanda said as she gazed off into the distance, imagining what New York would be like.
    “Oh, alright. I’ll go with you. It would be a great break from hearing Justin humming all the time. He also dances if he thinks we aren’t watching.” Nicole said.
    Nicole and Amanda both got up and went to collect their things before leaving for their new life. Halfway up the ladder to the ship, Amanda was spotted by Mattie.
    “You were seeing Nicole, weren’t you?” She said.
    “Now why would I do that? They are all just a bunch of lying, conniving rats.” Amanda said.
    “Hey!” Brittany shouted from behind Mattie, “Rats are people too!”
    “Rats are disgusting,” Mattie said, making a face. “Alright, you can come on up.”
    Amanda made her ascent. Little did they know, that Nicole had followed Amanda to the ship to ask her one more question, but upon hearing Amanda’s remark, she ran towards the sewer, flustered and a tad confused.
    “Is anything wrong, Nicole?” Christy asked when Nicole came in.
    “Is anything right?” Nicole said shaking her head as she walked by. She sat down next to Maryum and Hannah, who were still doing their earlier activities. Just then, Justin got up and left the room. He started walking quickly and quietly towards the pirate ship carrying a stack of papers, obviously in a hurry. He wasn’t paying attention either, and was walking so quietly that Victoria ran right into him, knocking them both to the ground and causing the papers that they were holding to fly out of their hands.
    “Hey, you look familiar.” Victoria said as they got up. “I’ve seen you before.”
    “Nope, I don’t think so.” Justin said, hastily gathering his papers and taking off.
    “Well, okay. Nice to meet you to.” And with that Victoria walked away.
    Justin slid his papers under Nick’s door of the captain’s quarters. Then he sneaked along the halls towards Haley’s room, where she was trying to catch popcorn in her mouth, which wasn‘t working at all. He peeked in the window, and when he saw that no one was looking, he slid into the room, hiding in the closet near the door. Just then, Mattie walked in after a long day of planning with Nick.
    “Get out of my room,” She told Haley, “I’m tired, I just want to sleep.”
    “We can watch movies, I stole a twelve-inch television today. Don’t worry, it’s just my brother’s, he won’t need it.” Haley said. She patted the bed next to her, “Come sit.”
    “Fine, for a while.” Mattie said, sitting down next to Haley.
    Justin began to feel uneasy. He had been counting on Haley being alone. The fact that this was Mattie’s room in the first place scared him. She could walk over and open the closet at any time. He could take Haley, but both of them could be a problem. Slowly Haley and Mattie began to fall asleep, and Justin began to relax. As soon as he thought both of them were in a dead sleep, he crept out of the closet. He walked over to where Haley was sleeping and pried Mattie’s arms from around her, careful not to wake her up. Then he picked Haley up and ran out into the night. Actually, he more like scurried. He was counting on Haley not being able to fight him off and thought she would be the lightest to pick up, but in her sleep she was just dead weight. He dragged her slowly towards the sewer hideout.
    The next morning when Nick woke up, he found Justin’s letter beneath his door. Except in Justin’s haste to get away from Victoria, he had picked up the wrong papers. He had picked up Victoria’s by mistake. Instead of Nick reading, “I have taken the girl as a hostage, give us the Diamond Nun Chucks back,” as Justin wrote, Nick read, “Dear Boss, I’m sorry to leave you at this critical moment, but I’m going on vacation.” Justin’s letter went to Victoria’s boss, and Victoria’s letter went to Nick.
    When Mattie awoke to find that Haley had left her like a one-night stand, she was angry. It was the perfect thing to get her pumped up for the fight that day. Sadly, no one knew about Haley, so she was pounding on the door of a utility room deep in the depths of the sewers. Teatime came and went, and soon the ninjas went to fight the pirates. Justin was puzzled that Nick hadn’t come right away to collect Haley and give back the nun chucks. Justin was beginning to worry that Maryum was right, and worse, he was beginning to forget which utility room he had locked Haley in. He shrugged off the feelings and continued to get himself riled up for the big fight.
    “Where’s Haley?” Brittany asked as they prepared the cannons.
    “She sent me the weirdest note. Did you guys know she was going on vacation?” Nick explained.
    “No.” They rest of the crew answered. Mattie was still boiling that Haley had left her and she was even more angry that she didn’t get to go on the vacation.
    “They’re here!” Amanda shouted, having decided not to leave after all. All the pirates ran to the side of the ship to watch their enemies approach. The ninjas stopped twenty feet away from the ship and looked up. For what seemed like forever, they just stared at each other. A plank of the ship was lowered and Nick, Mattie, and Brittany ran down wailing victory calls and swinging swords. Amanda stayed on the ship to fire the cannons. The ninjas gathered up their samurai swords, preparing for the attack. Hannah’s was freshly shined, seeing as though she finished her book. Just then, Haley walked through the middle of the fight unintentionally.
    “Hey guys, what’s up?” She asked. The pirates ceased running. Mattie walked up and punched Haley’s arm.
    “That was for not taking me on your vacation.” She said and walked back to Nick and Brittany.
    “Ouch, I was being held captive by Justin. Man, that hurt.” Haley said, rubbing her arm.
    “He did what?” Mattie shouted angrily, “Nick, you said she went on vacation!”
    “Really, guys? Why would I go on vacation alone?” Haley asked.
    “Justin!” Nick shouted. Mattie handed Haley a sword and they all began charging again. Brittany whistled and a giant octopus came out of the sea.
    “It’s the Kraken!” Christy shouted.
    “It’s not possible,” Nicole said, “Those things don’t exist!”
    “I’m the Animal Whisperer!” Brittany shouted.
    “Here her roar.” Nicole muttered sarcastically. Suddenly Victoria walked up swinging the Diamond Nun Chucks and towing the treasure chest in a red wagon behind her.
    “Hey guys. I’m just going to the bank. Nice octopus thing.” She said, and started whistling something that might have been Jingle Bells. Both the pirates’ and the ninjas’ eyes popped open.
    They looked at each other, nodded in agreement, and then they all began chasing her down the road, waving their swords and cursing her out. Tis a magical weekend for all.